Coherence of Compressional Pc3‐4 Pulsation Driven by Upstream Waves in Topside Ionosphere Observed by the Swarm Constellation

Abstract In this study, we presented a detailed analysis of ultralow frequency compressional waves with frequencies ranging from 16 to 100 mHz by using magnetic measurements of Swarm A and B, when the two spacecraft were flying in a counter‐rotating configuration. These waves are assumed to be driven by processes in the fore‐shock region and subsequently termed as upstream waves (UWs). An automatic detection algorithm for identifying UW events has been developed and applied to the Swarm magnetic measurements. Different to previous studies we take advantage of the counter‐rotating Swarm constellation to investigate the large‐scale homogeneous wavefield. Only B‐field oscillations from both Swarm A and B satellites satisfy the following criteria are accepted for UWs analysis: (a) highly correlated with normalized correlation coefficient (Cc) larger than 0.9; (b) shifted by less than 3 s between observations; (c) separated up to 90° in latitude and/or longitude. By this procedure we have identified from the years 2018–2023 in total 577 orbits containing UWs in the magnetic recordings of both spacecraft. In the first step, we checked phase shifts between UW detections at large latitudinal separation. The two counter‐rotating spacecraft allowed to make use of the Doppler effect to check the possible propagation of UWs at ionospheric altitude. Although individual events show signs of north‐south wave propagation, on average no systematic motion could be found. Similarly, possible wave motions toward or away from noon hours have been checked. By analyzing the simultaneous observations at larger longitudinal separation, also hardly any phase differences are identified in the east‐west direction. Further by evaluating the statistical results, a mean tiny local time effect seems to emerge, indicating on average an earlier arrival of the waves in the morning and later in the evening hours.